Anyone have experience with low iron?

I've always had pretty low iron but never really paid that much attention to it until recently I've been getting dizzy and just exhausted with no motivation what so ever I thought it was just from being tired since my baby is a horrible sleeper and just thought I was tired but my symptoms just kept getting worse wind feeling in my ear light headed so my dr told me the other day my iron was low my ferratin was 15 and iron sat was 20 just wondering if anyone on here has iron issues and if you also get symptomatic with these levels? I'm hoping it's just the iron everything else comes back ok on my blood tests well except for b12 it was at 200 but have been getting shots and it's up to 546 any help is appreciated! Thanks

Yes. it happens. Hopefully you're going to treat it. It's an easy fix and you'll feel much better!

Kelirae24 wrote: I've always had pretty low iron but never really paid that much attention to it until recently I've been getting dizzy and just exhausted with no motivation what so ever I thought it was just from being tired since my baby is a horrible sleeper and just thought I was tired but my symptoms just kept getting worse wind feeling in my ear light headed so my dr told me the other day my iron was low my ferratin was 15 and iron sat was 20 just wondering if anyone on here has iron issues and if you also get symptomatic with these levels? I'm hoping it's just the iron everything else comes back ok on my blood tests well except for b12 it was at 200 but have been getting shots and it's up to 546 any help is appreciated! Thanks

*Raises hand* Me! I seem to spend a lot of time fighting low iron (my crazy ITP periods kind of make that a constant). When I started the Promacta, I was constantly anemic (hgb 9-10 range) and my Ferritin was something like a 4. My hematologist recommended IV iron infusions (I did 10 IVs of ferrlecit). My Ferritin rebounded to 21 or 22 after the treatments (I haven't checked it lately so it may be even better now, those numbers were a month or so after treatment). I take oral iron (2 pills of Vitron C daily) and my hgb on my CBCs has been pretty constant around 13.5 for the last 6 months or more. It's nice to not huff and puff as much going up the stairs, and anemia symptoms are not fun. For me, treating the low iron was worth it and I'm getting a pretty good run of much better numbers since I did the IV infusions. Maybe there will come a time when I'll need to repeat them, but I'm going good for the moment. Hope all is well with the baby and that your NPlate headaches are better!

I've had low ferritin and just treating that made a world of difference. I've also had low B-12 and taking sublingual B-12 shot that right up. These are problems that can be easily corrected so go for it and feel better!

Thanks for your responses I'll definitely remember to take it now has no idea this is what was making me feel terrible

A lot of people have that problem, Keli. It's easy to blame ITP or the treatments for symptoms when many times, there is another underlying problem that is undetected. It's good that you finally caught these before they became too problematic.

After really big nosebleeds, I have become anemic. I actually have felt fine, but my hema insists I take iron supplements until my hemoglobin and hermatocrit numbers go back up. Chopped liver tastes a lot better to me than iron supplements though, so I eat that too!

Hi, Karen and all. My iron dropped to dangerously low levels after internal bleeding caused by a fall last summer when my platelet count was less than 5,000. I was able to restore functional iron levels (hemoglobin and hematocrit) by taking a combination of Dessicated Liver capsules and whole food Vitamin C, along with Longan Fruit, a dried Chinese fruit snack recommended by Chinese herbalists as a blood builder.

Specifically, my iron saturation level was down to 4%, my red blood cells decreased in size, and my hemoglobin was at 11%, on the edge of anemia. After four months of taking the liver, vitamin c, and Longan fruit, my CBC last week showed my hemoglobin was back to a healthy 13% and my red blood cells showed no signs of anemia. My iron level went from a low of 15 in February up to a normal 50 as of last week.

The protocol I used involved taking 4 of the Dessicated Liver capsules at lunch 5 days a week, along with juice from one fresh-squeezed orange or the equivalent in powdered whole food vitamin C (not ascorbic acid), and then eating some of the Longan fruit as a late afternoon snack. Instead of taking the Liver capsules, you can substitute eating six ounces of fresh liver from grass fed beef once a week.

This is my adaptation of the protocol for raising iron levels recommended by the Magnesium Advocacy Group, a Facebook group with over 90,000 members dealing with a wide variety of autoimmune disorders. That group's focus is on balancing minerals, especially magnesium and iron, along with zinc, and copper, and increasing levels of the hormones that make them functional, especially Ceruloplasmin. They have no special knowledge of how to deal with ITP, however.

The head of this group, a health coach named Morley Robbins, has done a lot of research on iron utilization by the body and doesn't consider ferritin to be the best marker of uself iron levels, as it measures stored iron rather than active iron. They recommend you get the full four-test iron panel: serum iron, unbound iron, iron saturation level, and total unbound iron). But since itp patients get so many CBCs, we can tell from those if our blood cells and hemoglobin are being affected by iron issues even without the iron panel. My hematologist runs both kinds of tests, and my iron panel numbers seem to mirror my CBC red blood cell measures.

I find the MAG group's food-based protocols helpful in general, although some of their recommendations (such as taking cod Liver oil for vitamin D) don't work for people with low platelet counts. The group doesn't specifically deal with ITP, but is a good source for information using magnesium to improve your general health and for food-based supplements to replace vitamin pills. It hasn't helped my platelet count yet, but it has given me back my energy and helps me live with a semblance of normality.